Episode Transcription

Alexander Kotler: [Music]

Alexander Kotler: It's a new year and there's plenty to be excited about. The Game of Thrones series finale is coming, so is Google's competitor to Microsoft's Hollow Lens and Kitty Hawks to see electric aircraft. The neck sweater vests will be back and Martin Scorsese's is the Irishman, is sure to rock the box office. Is there anything left to look forward to? Yes, dear listener, yes. And in this brief review, we'll look back and we'll look forward at what's arriving in 2019 on RubyApps insights.

Alexander Kotler: Happy New Year, everyone. I'm flying solo, unfortunately though, not in the Kitty Hawk, but high above Manhattan in Studio 55. Today's episode, we'll share a few of last year's hits and then we'll touch upon some of the topics that we'll be covering in upcoming pods. First, let's get nostalgic and then let's get excited about 2019 cause it's gonna be awesome.

Alexander Kotler: From the five must asks for marketers episode. Let's talk a little bit about security. That's one of the most important things. It's relevant for a number of reasons as Scott mentioned to marketers. How do you know if you're doing it well? How do you know if you're doing it poorly?

Jaron Rubenstein: That's a good question. So there's a number of ways that you wanna implement security for your firm's digital marketing efforts. We have an offering called booby shield, which provides a number of different technologies that ensure that your site is secure and that it is regularly scanned and audited to ensure, ensure that compliance with, with security standards. The world of technology, of, of digital security, of Internet security, of web security keeps evolving and there are a large number of attack vectors that get defined by various bodies and this, in the space as well as governmental agencies. And so there are tools that you can use to scan your site and your digital marketing properties against those issues and ensure that none of them are present in your, on your digital properties.

Alexander Kotler: From the conversion rate optimization episode, how would a marketer think about putting all of this to work and for what reasons?

Scott Rubenstein: So that's a really good question. And just from, from a top level, it's really about, you know, the customer journey, the business development flow and at the end of the day, making, turning a cold lead into a warm lead. And so I'll give you an example. You have a website, it's got a form that has a few preferences on it or, or maybe they, they go to a page about some sort of specific expertise that your professional services firm is known for and there's a sign up for alerts link. And they sign up for the alerts, it then gets captured in your CRM where you have their name, their email, and other information as well as their preferences for let's say energy.

Scott Rubenstein: So this client is interested in energy and emerging trends around energy and there will be an event soon where one of the people at the firm is speaking about energy, new energy. And so you will send out an invite to this person who will then get an email, see that it's about something they're interested in, go to the event. And that could then be locked in your CRM and put in a list for, you know, people at your firm to already know a lot about this person and say, "Hey, oh, I know that you are on our website, and you're interested in energy, and I wanted to, you know, talk a little bit more about that."

Scott Rubenstein: And so it turns a cold lead to, "Hi, this is my name and what brings you here" to, you know, jumps to the third or fourth step in the conversation. And I think makes that personal and more comfortable and more willing to engage in a conversation that you want them to have.

Alexander Kotler: From Bing Webmaster Tools episode. Mason, you recently wrote an article about the topic of Bing Webmaster Tools. So firstly, what is Bing?

Mason Jagel: Well, first of all, thanks for having me. Always a pleasure. Second trip here to the podcast room. Bing ...

Alexander Kotler: This is Studio 55.

Mason Jagel: Studio 55 of course.

Alexander Kotler: Respect the environment and the elevation of the prestige that comes along with Studio 55.

Mason Jagel: Certainly, my apology. Bing is essentially Google but it's Microsoft's version of Google to a search engine that a lot of people use.

Alexander Kotler: Really? A lot of people use it? I had barely heard of it. I knew that it was out there. I wouldn't have necessarily come to it, so who's using Bing and what's important about it?

Mason Jagel: About 30% of Americans are using Bing. It's important because Bing is the default search engine on windows based machines. Since Microsoft owns windows and Bing, they want you to use their product as much as possible.

Alexander Kotler: From podcasts, renaissance or renaissance episode. I believe I said renaissance and you said renaissance. So I just wanna ... Is there an appropriate way to pronounce the word?

Scott Rubenstein: I would go with renaissance but that's my long island roots. The, the question about the subject of the podcast is very important. So you mentioned their content strategy. They may have a content strategy, they may not. I would always recommend having a podcast about a specific subject as opposed to about everything. So if you're in a professional services firm, you shouldn't have a podcast named professional services firm ink. It should be about energy or a specific area of your expertise or your services or offering. For example, if you do have a podcast about energy, you can create multiple podcasts about natural gas and oil, et cetera. You could also create a podcast just about natural gas and get really granular and have series and different podcasts about natural gas and things that are going on, like fracking, et cetera.

Alexander Kotler: From run your marketing organization like a startup episode.

Scott Rubenstein: I think one of the other things that might be worth raising to the fore is not just the language in which they referred to by, but the notion of cultural, this similarity or the associations that people have culturally of what it means to be a startup versus what it means to be a fortune 500 professional services firm.

Jaron Rubenstein: I think that you see in, in a fortune 500 and larger or in a larger organizations, it's certainly doesn't have to be that large. But in, in a larger organization, you know, anything when you started talking about hundreds of, of, of employees and on up. I think that you see that there are leaders or innovators that emerge in that environment and don't take the status quo for, you know, aren't complacent. They're not, they're not satisfied with, “This is the way we've always done it.” They're not satisfied with, “This is the way it's done here.” And instead they either, either through their own drive and ambition or by looking at other organizations that are able to accomplish more, they bring these ideas into that culture.

Alexander Kotler: Now for our forecasts, all of which of course are subject to change since we like our software balance on the cutting edge. In upcoming episodes we'll likely cover ...

Voiceover: One.

Alexander Kotler: Metrics and making business decisions based on those measurements and keep performance indicators, where to begin, which tools to use and how to move the needle.

Voiceover: Two.

Alexander Kotler: Accessibility WCAG known affectionately or otherwise in some circles as which hag, is finally garnering the attention and consideration of people in high places and companies of all types must evaluate how to approach it. The key question is whether you're able to do it proactively or whether you're trying to repair a leaky sink with the water still turned on.

Voiceover: Three.

Alexander Kotler: Marketing automation can exponentially increase the reach of your human resources while also helping to capture critical information about new business leads and existing customers and devotees. Are you automating processes? How and why?

Voiceover: Four.

Alexander Kotler: Everyone knows that social media is important. Do you know why and are you focused primarily on building your brand organically? If you are, unless you're a pop star or a true influencer, you may not be building your brand at all.

Voiceover: Five.

Alexander Kotler: That's where a paid content strategy comes in and where balancing budget effectively targeting your audience and serving up ads and offerings that convert, can make a difference between a post that flops and a prospect that flips your revenue projections.

Voiceover: Six.

Alexander Kotler: Do you feel a need for speed? Yes. You probably do. In some parts of the world, users can expect Internet connection to serve content up at more than 50 megabits per second. That's fast. The bottom line is that the new expectations bar for how quickly your site should load is pretty high, like instantaneous. We'll chat about speed and user experience and how to optimize for both.

Voiceover: Seven.

Alexander Kotler: Does your brand stand out? How is it perceived, experienced, consumed, and differentiated from the competitive set or just all the other slog fighting for eyeballs and ear balls? What are your balls? Cascading your brand across all touch points and having all team members effectively be representatives of your brand is a tall order, so is making the right impression during the sales pitch. How can you keep all of this in mind while delivering quickly and memorably while under pressure?

Voiceover: Eight.

Alexander Kotler: Today's content is converging and then it gets distributed. Your digital assets, key messages, one pagers, tombstones, tweets, chirps, barks and woofs. Yup. Woofs are all being crafted and blasted out into the world. That's a reference to woof.com for you Office fans. How do you keep them together but separate, evolving but consistent? What is your single source of truth? How can your distributed team work collaboratively within one system and then broadcast across multiple channels?

Voiceover: Nine.

Alexander Kotler: Digital transformation. Yeah, that's an old term that everyone's been talking about for a while, but for many, it's now actually happening. So welcome aboard the crazy train. There are no seats and we're going fast and it's awful bumpy, toot toot.

Voiceover: 10.

Alexander Kotler: And finally, let's get personal and have a relationship. How can your B2B brand get target audiences to proverbially swipe right? In part, it's by showing them what they want and smart content is the way to get there.

Voiceover: [fireworks] HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Alexander Kotler: And so if all that's not enough to get excited about, or if you have topics that you'd like to hear on RubyApps insights, reach us via rubyapps.com. And from all of us here at RubyApps, have an awesome 2019.

Voiceover: [Music]

Voiceover: RubyApps insights is recorded at Studio 55 and it's hosted by Alexander Kotler. For more insights and detail on RubyApps enterprise software developed by Ruby's team tech, visit RubyApps.com. Until next time, have an awesome every day.